#participatory-design

#participatory-design

The design for Youth Center Mena stems from an explicit ambition to create a place of encounter, focusing on the needs and wishes of its users from the outset.

One of the most powerful moments in the creative process is seeing an idea transform into something real. For a child, that moment carries even greater weight. It builds confidence, validates imagination, and reinforces the belief that creativity is not limited by age. Chair for Kids, a participatory design project developed by Taekhan Yun, captures this experience by translating children's playful and imperfect drawings into fully functional and usable chairs that children can see, touch, and use every day.

Public space is often understood as belonging to no one in particular, collectively accessible yet institutionally maintained, yet a growing number of initiatives are challenging this assumption by testing shared management and distributed ownership models. In Paris, Adoptez un banc introduces a sponsorship-based approach, allowing individuals and groups to support temporarily and symbolically claim responsibility for historic public furniture without compromising its collective use.

Evelyn Muller + 52 Architects: Andre Braz Arquitetura, Andre Motta Vieira Area of this architecture project Area: 3122 ft Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 Photographs:Evelyn Muller Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: Botteh, Calu Fontes, Demilr Fernandes, Demilr Fernandes, Fuba e Famiilia, Guara Planejados, Guara Planejados, Leva Oficina, Projeto Sertoes, REKA, Suvinil, Tokstok, Unknown (Removed), Zezinho Basilio, Zezinho Basilio, Zezinho Basilio Lead Architects: Andre Braz, Andre Mottta Category: Houses, Renovation

Conceived as a public structure addressing the limited availability of comfortable beachfront space, the pavilion forms a geometric intervention within the Adriatic landscape. Its triangular plan incorporates an open central void and a perimeter walkway that supports activities such as swimming, resting, and small-scale gatherings. The pavilion's form produces a defined relationship between water, city, and port, framing views and creating varied spatial conditions depending on movement, light, and tide.

In the late 1990s, my company, Michael Graves Design changed the conversation around design with a teakettle that was joyful, affordable, and elegant. It didn't just sit on a stove, it stood for a new idea: Good design was not a luxury, but a right. Target's Design for All programs went on to define America's expectation that great design should be available to everyone.

"It's an amazing idea, and it's surprising that it hasn't knowingly been done before. "Tape felt like the perfect tool to disrupt typographic tradition. It's fast, tactile, and unruly," says Varanda. "What fascinated me most was how tape could act as both a restriction and a liberation. It forces letterforms into sharp edges, but in the hands of 27 participants, it created shapes that I could never have imagined alone."

Community Park Veinte de Mayo, designed by Taller Ciudad Portátil, is located in the Veinte de Mayo neighborhood in Neiva, . The project occupies a 94 sqm triangular plot that had previously been abandoned and associated with insecurity and neglect. Through a process of participatory design and collective construction, the site was transformed into a compact public space that addresses the neighborhood's limited access to communal areas, with less than 4% coverage, while fostering social interaction and environmental resilience.

How do nature and landscape dialogue within spaces designed for children? How are architecture and urban design capable of shaping natural atmospheres that integrate practices of play, participation, and exploration? From participatory projects that involve children in the design process to built environments that incorporate furniture adapted to their needs, the conception of spaces for childhood entails the creation of places for encounter, learning, and coexistence.

The O by Alberto Roncelli takes the form of a circular timber pavilion, combining solar energy production and rainwater harvesting beneath a wide canopy that also serves as a flexible communal space.

The project transforms a modest 1930s house into a generous dwelling, reinterpreting the detached pavilion typology with a three-story volume that enhances urban scale.